Jewish Medical Ethics: A Comparative and Historical Study of the Jewish Religious Attitude to Medicine and Its Practice

This noted work is the first comprehensive treatise on the subject - and indeed on the history of religious medical ethics in general. Tracing the development of Jewish and other religious views on medico-moral problems from antiquity to present day, it is profusely annotated by references to the original sources in religious, medical, legal and historical literature. The subjects treated include abortion, artificial insemination, birth control, euthanasia, autopsies, eugenics, sterilization, the treatment of patients on the Sabbath and the attitude to faith healing and irrational medical beliefs. Several chapters are devoted to the physician in Jewish religious law - his studies and privileges, his license and legal responsibilities, his professional charges and the admission of his evidence. Originally published in 1959 this edition was revised in 1975 with recent developments in Jewish medical ethics which traces the evolution of Jewish law, as revealed in rabbinical judgments and discussions, through the on-going process of applying timeless principles and precedents to the changing social and scientific conditions of the times. A resourceful reference this historical work is not only a source, but a guide for many students, scholars and rabbis who are constantly questioning, researching and re-evaluating these ethics in the ever changing society in which we live.